


Crashing Like a Tidal Wave

by Moon_Destiny (Dahlia_Moon)



Category: Smallville
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Missing Scenes, Romance, Season/Series 09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-14
Updated: 2011-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dahlia_Moon/pseuds/Moon_Destiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times Oliver wanted to say I love you to Chloe but didn’t…and the one time he finally did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crashing Like a Tidal Wave

**Author's Note:**

> Season nine Chlollie mostly. Title comes from the song “Stranded” by Plumb.

_I. Warrior_

She comes in, a ray of sunshine spilling over the darkened tower, talking about when was the last time she had any fun. There’s a tiredness about her that Oliver’s been seeing quite a lot lately.

If he’s honest with himself, he’d admit that he’d love to be the one to show her a good time. He’s the king of good times and if there’s anyone who should have a little bit of fun in their lives it’s Chloe. She spends all her energy being there for other people, Oliver wonders who’s there for her? Who takes care of her? Is there anyone she can come to unload on?

_“I don’t think anyone can fault you for being on edge, Chloe.”_

The moment shifts toward…something. And everything is decided for Oliver. He hands over the bow and arrow to her, standing behind her, guiding her arm. He’s so close to her it’s taking everything in his power to keep a steady hand on her own.

She turns to face him, a proud smile on her lips and he falls in love with her just a little bit more. She stares at him, face turning contemplative. It’s like she’s never seen him before. And maybe she hasn’t – not the Oliver that loves her and wants to be with her.

He stares back, not willing to mask his feelings for her anymore. This is it. It’s all or nothing now.

She leans up closer on her tip toes and somehow they’re kissing. He hugs her tighter to him, afraid to let go, afraid this is all a dream. He loves her so much and the feeling is so new to him. And he shouldn’t feel this way because this is Chloe; it’d be wrong somehow and weirdly inappropriate to fall in love with her but he can’t help it. His heart has already lept off the edge without consulting his head.

 

_II. Conspiracy_

The paper stares at him, mocking him from where he threw it angrily at his desk. The way he sees it, he’s got two ways to go about this. Option number one: ignore it and hope it goes away (and in the process push Chloe away because clearly this means she is only with him because of his money and if that’s all this is to her then she can find some other rich boy to toy with). Option two: confront her about it.

He rudely stares back at the paper while weighing both decisions. The fact that Tess brought this to his attention means she’s up to something. Oliver doesn’t know what but if it involves Chloe, it can’t be good.

And he loves her so no matter how hurt he is at the moment, he firmly squashes that hurt side deep down and goes to see her. He has to protect her even if it ends up she’s only using him.

 

_III. Escape_

Either he’s ended up in some weird alternate reality or Smallville’s crime rate has increased to unimaginable numbers. He doesn’t know what it says about him that he hopes it’s the former but the past week has been hell. He’s been on patrol duty and gotten into fights every night, saved at least a dozen people from muggings and robberies and the insomnia is just the icing on the cake. To be fair, the insomnia isn’t due to Green Arrow business unfortunately, but more due to Oliver Queen and his personal life.

Things between him and Chloe have been weird ever since he found out Chloe had been “borrowing” money from him. He doesn’t want to say they’ve become strangers but that’s the truth. She’s been distancing herself and while Oliver appreciates her giving him space, he misses her.

That thing where he’s been falling head over heels for her? Yeah, not even finding out she was stealing money from him is stopping that. Cue the insomnia and the figuring out how to fix this road block between them, how to get her to be comfortable with him again so they’re in the same room for more than a minute, so they can kiss again (and possibly have make-up sex. Oliver’s been looking forward to that but more than that he wants his best friend - and possibly lover - back.) If it weren’t for Watchtower, they’d probably cease talking all together and isn’t that a nightmarish thought?

Tonight’s not looking so great either. And Oliver’s tired. Tired of it all.

He’s a little off his game too, which accounts for his not seeing the second crazed robber come at him with a knife to try to slice his face off. He turns the robber’s arm away at the last second but not before he gets a sharp stab in the shoulder and a few punches in the face.

He gets back to Watchtower, blood staining his uniform and face feeling like it was used as a punching bag. He doesn’t think this night can get any worse and all he wants is to face plant into his bed and forget the world exists, if only for a few hours.

What surprises him is when Chloe rushes to greet him, face concerned and arms leading him gently to the couch, first aid already waiting on the table. It’s the first time she’s touched him in more than a week and Ollie feels a phantom spark of electricity. He’s bruised and beaten but her touch feels like it’s healing him of everything.

He takes off his vest and undershirt so she can clean up the stab wound, eyes concentrating on the wound and Ollie looks at her intently. Why can’t he say it to her? Possibly because they haven’t even defined what they are to each other, and Ollie knows she’s more than a one-night stand for him but he has no idea what he means to her.

All too soon she’s finished dressing his wound and his mind screams that if he doesn’t do something right now, he’ll lose her. He grabs her hand before she has a chance to move away. She gives him a curious look but keeps her hand in his and that encourages him to move closer. He gives her a look that makes her nervous, judging by her biting her lips and glancing back and forth between him and their locked hands. He wants to tell her how cute she is when she’s on the defense. Maybe later he will, right now it’s more important to get her to talk to him again.

“So…” He begins, smiling when her confusion doesn’t go away but becomes more pronounced.

“So…”

“Any plans for tonight?” Might as well jump to the point.

“Uh, no. Just figured I’d spend a quiet evening at home.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone.”

“Well, I figured you might want some company.” He smiles boyishly, trying to deflect how pathetic he feels right now, how much he needs and loves her, even if he can’t say the words because that’ll surely destroy them.

“Ollie…” She gently pries her hand out of his, looking away while she stands up to clean up the first aid kit. “I think we need to talk…”

“Uh-oh, nothing great ever came from those words.”

She doesn’t look at him and Ollie gets a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“I – uh, I’m very confused right now.” She keeps fighting to close the lid of the kit but it’s giving her a hard time and she gives up on it entirely before moving away, which worries Ollie.

“What are you confused about?”

“I stole money from you, Ollie and you – you….” She rubs her face tiredly.

“Did you miss the part where I got over that? I mean I’m not excusing what you did and I wish you could’ve come to me because I would’ve given you anything you needed…but you did what you did for the right reasons.” No matter how cheesy it makes him sound, he would give her the world if she wanted it.

“How can you be so understanding?” She looks so sad and wrecked by guilt, it makes Oliver want to hug her and tell her how much he loves her. But she’s not ready to hear it. They’re both not ready for such a big word.

“Because I…uh, I…” He can’t force the words out even if it’s the perfect moment for them. “I guess that’s just the kind of guy I am.” He finally says, moving off the couch to stand behind her. He gives in to his urges and wraps his arms around her, nose diving into her hair and inhaling her sweet smell.

“I don’t care that you stole money from me, I miss you, Chloe,” he whispers into the back of her neck.

“I miss you too,” she admits in a small voice.

He leads her back to the couch, tucking her under his arm and closing his eyes, ready to drop off into sleep. “Sidekick, we desperately need a vacation.” His head lolls to the side, and meets hers, their bodies connected together from arm to thigh.

“I definitely agree, just leave everything to me. Sleep now.”

The last thing Oliver remembers is Chloe stroking his cheek softly before he finally lets go.

 

_IV. Sacrifice_

He tells himself that it’s not _only_ for her – that would be absurd – it’s solely for the protection of Watchtower. But Chloe’s Watchtower too and he now has an investment in protecting her as well– a personal investment sure but she is the glue that holds their merry band of superheroes together and if anything were to happen to Chloe, it wouldn’t just be Oliver who’d crumble and break.

He keeps saying that to himself when he has Queen Industries buy the satellite for Watchtower and hopes Chloe doesn’t have another freak out about him buying her gifts. She was right when she said gifts were never “just because.” And maybe he did buy her that spoon from the inn’s gift shop because he felt a strong attraction toward her. But it was also Clark’s fault for making him think he had to show Chloe he didn’t take her for granted when, really, they had been just fine pretending their relationship didn’t mean anything but two friends having fun together.

Maybe that’s why he doesn’t automatically tell her about getting Watchtower its own satellite – he has no idea how she’ll react now or if she’ll see right through him and figure out that his buying her this pretty much equals him saying he loves her.

 

_V. Salvation_

_“I’m heading back to Watchtower. If a war breaks out, I wanna be in the foxhole with you.”_

_“Oh. OK.”_

_“Because uh…”_

_“Right - because we need to protect Watchtower’s database.”_

_“Yeah, the database is uh…it’s uh important.”_

He ends the conference call, gathering stuff from his office to head back to Smallville, all the while replaying the last few minutes of the call in his head.

He had almost said it there. It was right on the tip of his tongue. Chloe must’ve sensed what he was going to say and saved him from having to utter it. He doesn’t know if he feels hurt or glad she interrupted.

The thing is…she completes him. He loves how she feels in his arms, how warm and soft she is, how good she is…she’s not perfect by any means but neither is he and somehow that imperfection balances out when they’re together.

She gets him and gets under him and accepts him for who he is.

He has been loving her ever since their first kiss in Watchtower. He’s been keeping it bottled up all this time, keeping it to himself for a while longer shouldn’t be so difficult.

He will tell her – and soon.

~*~

He’s crawling through the satellite station’s air ducts, trouble on his tail, coming at him from all sides. And all he keeps thinking about is how he hasn’t said those three words yet and what the hell is he waiting for? For the Kandorians to fry him to smithereens?

_“I love you.”_

He blurts it out, holding his breath until he hears her voice on the other end, clear and without any hesitation, saying she loves him too. He’s probably going to get killed, stuck in the cramped space, but he can’t help the smile that breaks through his lips.

Shit, his timing couldn’t be any worse.

/fin


End file.
